New year, new memories: January pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello!  It's been a cold start of the year here in Minnesota. This week should be warmer, but them it will chill down again in time for me to leave town with some friends. Until then, here are some pages I made for Simple Scrapper January:

This page uses a January story starter, which is about friendship.  I wrote about friendship as a military kid, which could be challenging because of moves. Since I grew up in the 70s and 80s, I picked warmer colors, which reminded me of the seventies.

The sketch for January inspired me to scrap the mammoth rain storm we got in Maple Grove this fall--10 inches!  I had taken a photo from a weather app from my phone and printed it for the page--it showed the epicenter of the storm over my house. I took many photos of the aftermath the next day, but I only picked one for the page from my favorite walk, now flooded over, and I recorded the story of the night before:

Thank you for checking out my page! I just finished a page about Christmas, so I'll share that later this week. 

Scrapbooking vacation stories: Five vacation faves

Last summer my family visited New York and Maine. For once, I didn't make the Five Vacation Favorites album right away. I'm sort of glad because now that it's REALLY cold out, I like revisiting the warmth of summer.

I had gotten this camper mini-albums years ago at an October Afternoon sale, so I decided to finally use it. I painted the outside covers, then used the already die cut inside pages for the album.

I keep an Iris container filled with camping supplies, so I dug into it to find some products that would go. I used mostly chipboard and stickers from October Afternoon's camping line.

Some of us in our family had such fun, they couldn't restrict themselves to just five favorites.

I didn't take a photo of just me this vacation, so I used a photo of my mom and me. I like that even more. We're in front  of the giant LLBean boot at Bean's in Freeport.

Another one who didn't restrict himself to five faves!

And that's our vacation album of our favorites. I'm so happy to make this album every year, and I look forward to collecting these mini stories after we go.

Scrapbooking Christmas: December pages for Simple Scrapper

A confession I've made before: I don't really like scrapbooking Christmas. I feel like every page, every year is the same. That said, I've enjoyed getting back into documenting Christmas now that our family has developed some of our own traditions. Here's two pages I made using sketches and story starters from Simple Scrapper:

This first page uses a new sketch and an old story starter. It's my favorite thing to take some snaps of the morning and record our calm time together. I loved pulling out vintage products for this.

Next is a page where I record our evolving Christmas tree topper tradition, using one of my favorite old sketches and a new story starter:

Again, I loved digging into my Christmas bucket of supplies to find the perfect fit. It felt good to use up my old Making Memories ribbons for the starburst on the right. Here's some details:

Thank you for visiting! Please check out the terrific membership available at Simple Scrapper, which will keep you scrapbooking, inspired.

Finishing details: sewing on a layout

Since my sons have gotten interested in RPG, I've wanted to scrap about their interest, particularly my youngest, who is particularly obsessed. I took some photos and put them together on this page:

I used some old travel paper from Basic Grey, plus a few other random ephemera from the travel bucket of supplies, but it still looked unfinished. That's when I decided to add some sewing. Here's the final page:

Hard to see, but I added some machine stitching, on the top, left, and right, plus on the letter stickers. Here's some details:

I often like stitching down border edges and letter stickers. I've also started stitching down photos as well, on both sides of the page for balance.

A funny story about that cluster of embellishments:I lost the bottom photo while I was scrapbooking. I eventually found it in the bucket of vacation patterned paper, but until then, I stuck down the top photo and put down some cork arrows, figuring I could lift them up and slide the lost photo under it. The reality, though? Cork doesn't unstick well. It actually crumbles. So I had to try to remove crumbles of cork, then figure out how to cover it up. I used a border sticker, some other cork, and a few embellishing stickers. Plus stitching, of course.

That's my page, without stitching and with! It is hard to see but I like the texture it adds. Do you sew on your pages?
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Scrapbooking design: Starting with supplies

When I design pages, I normally start with the photos or story, then go from there. Sometimes, though, I start with a product, usually something that's been sitting around for a while on my desk. Here's one such page.

I had a sheet of washi strips stickers from Studio Calico from one of my last kits, I think. I loved the colors on them--they reminded me of autumn--so I left them around, but I could never figure out how to use them. Then I printed some small, square photos from the Renaissance Fair and decided to use them on that page. Here's the page:

I had hoped the washi would be enough to back the photos, but the photos took up too much space, so I added strips of patterned paper and stitching to fill more space. Not much space was left for journaling, so I wrote around the edge with a journaling border. Here's some details:

Thank you for visiting! What is your starting point with a page? Do you too start with photos most of the time, or do you ever start with products?
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New kit, new scrapbooking inspiration

I've subscribed to kits or been on kit design teams for years. There's something awesome about getting that box of new supplies every month. I stopped completely this year, and I noticed something: my scrapbooking dropped off precipitously without the new supplies. Mind you, I have a stash, so that alone shouldn't have stopped me, and I scrapbooked before kits. Still, most scrapbook shops near me have closed, and I discovered this year that kits really do keep me inspired.

I started shopping around for kits this past summer. I like a lot of them, but most seemed heavy on flowers and feminine supplies. I'm not shy about using them on my boys' pages, but I like something a bit more linear. I finally settled on the Ali Edwards story kit. It contains cards and embellishments, no paper, but it's been just enough of a hit for me to create. Here's a couple pages:

When I printed these photos of our Father's Day at Surly, I reached into a story kit, pulled some cards that reflected the mood, then pulled some embellishments that seemed to fit. I used yardstick as the background then added some stitching. Easy peasy! Here's some details:

Another month had the theme of Me. Like using the supplies to make pages about myself, but I don't want every page about myself to have me me me on it, so I used some products to make a page about my son and what makes him like me:

Yep, he's like me because he tries to carry in all the groceries in one trip. That's perfectly normal.

Again, I found some neutral cards plus some embellishments, then picked a basic green piece of patterned paper as the background to make all the red pop.

Thanks for visiting! Do you subscribe to kits? Which ones? Please share!

Come at me, Slowbro: Scrapbooking your hobbies

It's been a busy fall again, but I have been scrapboooking. I've also gone back to some other hobbies this year that I've neglected: I finished three cross-stitch projects, I have read 34 books this year, and I grew an embarrassment of tomatoes. But I've slowly started scrapping again, and this time about a new hobby: Pokemon Go.

I know, I know--it's the game that everyone did, especially kids, then quit. Not my family. We've really enjoyed getting out and visiting different places in the Twin Cities, enjoyed the exercise, and managed some friendly competition and cooperation. I made a few pages recently, one about our trip to the zoo, and I plan on making a mini-album of the different places we've been. Here's a couple layouts I've made recently, starting with my favorite:

A month or so back, the game allowed you to choose a Pokemon as a "buddy" that you could walk around with to earn candies to power him up--something I guess candy does to us all (heh). I picked my Snorlax since he's rare and I can probably never catch another to earn more candy. When I saw how big he was next to my avatar, I immediately thought "Come at me, Bro!" then transposed it to "Slowbro," a kind of Pokemon. I took a picture and made this page.

The nice thing about Pokemon from a design standpoint are the colors--they are so bright and primary that it is easy to design with.

This next page is about my husband and me and how much we like to go hunting Pokemon together (apologies for the fuzzy resolution. It's getting dark so early here. I need to invest some time into making a light box.):

I tend to call these Pokedates but was hesitant to use it as the title because to me it sounds kind of naughty. Still, my husband challenged me, so I did. I put the accent on the E like it appears in the game, and bonus! I learned how to create the accented E in my journaling. Still don't know how to do it in Blogger, but oh well.

Again, I used bright primary colors, plus some pink for the Clefable I put in the gym. The red button is supposed to be a Pokeball, of course.

Thank you for letting my share this geeky hobby I've been indulging in! I hope this inspires you to create some pages about what else occupies your time, aside from scrapbooking.